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Any recruitment types got any thoughts on the best way to format a CV? A quick summary is that I spent 16 yrs doing fairly well in various IT/Consultancy/Mobile jobs but due to some career choices that went sour and other personal stuff I went through 3 companies in 3 years and then quit the rat race and retrained as a garden designer. I had a few good years but the business stopped paying a living wage when the recession hit so I eventually took the decision to look at getting back into the rat race, spurred on by two different leads from former colleagues which have now both dried up.
So the problem I have is that the standard chronological CV format seems to just highlight the amount of time since I last had a 'proper' job and then the three bad years before it, so I'm immediately looking like a bad prospect. I've tried a functional format as well, putting skills and experience on the first page and then listing employers on page 2, but that's not gone down too well either.
So any tips on what format a recruiter would prefer, and ways of not hitting the 'reject' pile as soon as they see a career break?
Also I'm not applying for positions at the same level I was at previously as I can't see how I can compete with other applicants who have current experience of that, but then I seem to be over-experienced in career terms for entry level roles, but at the same time I don't have the current technical skills that even these roles demand. Any thoughts on breaking that cycle?
A recruitment agency will scan it for keywords and not give a toss what it looks like.
For everyone else, make it clean and readable, and go into more detail of relevant skills. You said it yourself, you fancied a career change. Under 'gardener' I'd probably just put a sentence saying that.
You didn't have three "bad" years, you just moved around a bit. This is a sales document you're putting together, remember. We're a far cry from 'jobs for life' these days, people commonly move jobs for a number of reasons.
Don't sell yourself short. Just because you're not on the bleeding edge, doesn't mean you won't be again inside of a few weeks. In the meantime, get some books and get up to speed maybe? Going to an employer and saying "well, I'm a bit rusty but I'm in the process of retraining" is far better than "I've forgotten everything and done nothing about it, have you got space for an office junior?"
Cheers Cougar - learning stuff & being an instant expert is what half my former career was about (day 1 of my first ever job was teaching myself Lotus 1-2-3, day 2 was teaching it to the MD's PA). Hopefully that comes through in the CV, but if I were hiring (as I have in the past) I'd probably prefer the candidate with 6 months experience of XYZ in a work environment rather than the one who says he's been learning about it in his own time. Maybe I'm taking too dim a view of my own experience and what I can offer - I've always been a harsh self critic so find it easy to perceive my weaknesses rather than strengths.
I've been recruiting for IT analyst/consultant roles over the past few months, I'm not a recruiter though just trying to fill roles in my team.
I'm not sure what's 'correct' but my preference is a short (1/3rd page maybe) skills summary at the start + certs below. Then followed by chronological experience with the last 3 or 4 years covered in more details with specific areas relevant to the role highlighted. Obviously that's not going to work for you but I'd still do it chronological and just do a brief "started own business in garden design" or something to cover that issue.
I don't think the jumping about between roles before the gardening should count against you much, a lot of the CVs I see have frequent job changes so it's pretty normal. The main concern I'd have is your lack of experience in recent technologies, that's pretty key for a consultancy type role. I don't really know how you get around that other than targeting roles not specifically asking for recent versions of stuff - most role descriptions will be pretty generic until you get to telephone interview stage though I think.
I'd also go the cert route if you can afford it, I'm amazed by how many people have no certs or something like a Windows XP MCP (when applying for a senior server role). I know certs aren't proof of competency but lack of them is an easy way to filter out candidates and if you've self-funded them it shows you're serious about getting back into IT rather just looking for a pay cheque until you can get a living from garden design again.